Page 9Scan 17 of 24
xa considered opinion of the date of the construction and draw safe historical conclusions. I would have wellcomed that this research, so important for the interpretation of the "temple" site, is undertaken this year and I have asked you and your curator to do it. – I now see that you avoid so far, to undertake this research by deciding to continue this year on the Northwall and to dig west of the mainbuilding in the top levels to make sur of their relationship with the mainbuilding. But there is no problem and no difference of opinion, all floors IV to I belonging to the Early Iron Age (L C III) as I agreed to your curator's report. The problem and the differences regard the date of the foundation and construction of the mainbuilding, that it is to say the date of establishment of floor V and of the levels below.
Promises in the charter to be respected. – In § 3 of the Charter there is special reference to the meticulous excavation in selected areas down to the rock; your department accepted to join the French Mission in this research. The selection of areas to be excavated, it is said there also, would rest with the director of the French Expedition, but would normally be a matter for consultation and mutual agreement. When you wished to choose another area than that I had proposed for your beginnings in 1948 (your cable of 25. nov. 48),
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain